Paprika: Minimalist Task Management

Developed by Paste Interactive, Paprika is a different kind of project and task management app. Though we’ve reviewed many different task management apps, it’s always a pleasure to review one with a different approach on managing tasks and projects.

Paprikasimplifies the process of note, task and project management by making the process of inputting information more natural. Rather than mess with buttons or menus, the app makes it easy to manage your tasks and notes via text based format. To get a better understanding of what this means, read on (with video preview).

Video Preview

Paprika

Overview

If you’re used to writing your notes or tasks on paper, you’ll feel right at home with Paprika. However, if you’re familiar with traditional task management apps, Paprika will be a breeze for you too. The app is a beautiful cross between the paper and digital note/task management worlds. By removing the majority of button and menu clutter most task management apps use, Paprika enables you to enter your information faster and with fewer clicks of the mouse. To show you how this works we’ll just jump into the app.

Sign Up

In typical Paste Interactive fashion, sign up takes only a few seconds and doesn’t require email activation.

Sign Up

Check out the lovely effect used when your passwords don’t match. I wish more app developers used effects like this for more interactive app feedback.

Using Paprika

Immediately after sign up you’ll be taken to your Projects overview page. A “getting started” project is pre-filled for you so you can get a better idea how Paprika works. It might be beneficial for the Paste team to offer a video tutorial or preview to show how things work and where to start.

Getting Started

New Project

After you’ve checked out the sample Get started with Paprika project, which explains how to use Paprika, you’ll be ready to jump in.

To start entering your project info. and tasks, click Create new project in the right hand column. A form input will drop down so you can enter the name of your project.

You’ll be taken to your new project’s page, which will include some sample information to help you get started. Simply hit the Edit button in the top right of the project page, under the folded corner (a nice touch).

New Project Sample Info

Once in editing mode you’ll notice everything (notes, tasks, dates) is entirely text based, using Textile. To create tasks/todos, simply start with a hyphen and space (“- “) followed by your task. It will be converted into a task once saved, as will tags (using “#”) and dates (simply enter the date).

Textile is a lightweight markup language, which is converted into valid XHTML.

Edit Project

The beauty of this is that you don’t need to click the mouse around, jump from one menu to another, etc. just to enter projects or tasks. Traditional task management apps interrupt the flow of information input by requiring too many menu or buttons, while Paprika allows you to quickly and easily enter your information with some basic formatting that will do the work later.

Views

Views

You can view different information based on project, tags, todos (tasks) or dates. This makes it a breeze to find certain information among piles of projects quickly and easily.

Sharing

Sharing

When viewing a project in edit mode you can quickly share the project using the Share this project link in the right hand column. You’ll automatically be provided with a unique short URL for that project, viewable and editable by anyone with the link.

Final Thoughts

Paprika takes a great approach to project and task management; one that I’ve used myself for quite awhile via basic text files, although excluding Textile, cloud access, tags, sharing and consolidated projects. I prefer typing all my notes, tags, tasks, dates, etc. myself rather than using clumsy menu systems and buttons like most of today’s task management apps.

Whether Paprika fits your personal preferences will just depend on what you want and need, but I have a feeling many fellow coders and designers will really dig this great new app. The simplicity and workflow of Paprika give it a killer start and unique approach to a nearly flooded market.

With that being said, there are a couple things I didn’t like about Paprika. First, I didn’t like the fact that I had to create a new project in order to enter todos/tasks. I’d like the ability to create them one-off at random. However, I can see that were I to create categories such as Chores, Work, etc., I’d be able to accomplish the same thing. I also wasn’t fond of the lack of sharing controls. I may want to share a project’s information but not allow editing. Or maybe the shared project shouldn’t be public (ie. require a password).

Despite the few cons, Paprika is on the right track and already has a great start. For now I’d have to give the app an 8/10 in hopes that we might see some additional features and options. Depending on what you’re expecting though, Paprika may rank a 9/10 or higher for some of you.

Summary

Keep track of all your notes, todos dates, and tags in a easy, quick, text based format. Productivity isn’t about drop-downs, or rating systems. It’s about quickly recording the things that need done, capturing what you don’t want to forget, and charting your way to the finish line.

Paprika
Reviewed by Jarel Remick on
Jun 29.
Keep track of all your notes, todos dates, and tags in a easy, quick, text based format. Productivity isn’t about drop-downs, or rating systems. It’s about quickly recording the things that need done, capturing what you don’t want to forget, and charting your way to the finish line.
Rating:
8 out of
10